Praised for his “beautiful, round soprano tone,” Composer and saxophonist Jeremy Udden’s newest recording Plainville, was released in 2009 to critical acclaim. Jazzman has called it “a resolutely new music where eclecticism and personal experience play an important role.” The band Plainville is Udden’s newest project and features a more folk-influenced twist, finding a niche on bills with country and folk groups as well as jazz, featuring Udden on sax, backed by a unique combination of pump organ/rhodes, banjo/guitar, bass and drums.

Originally from Plainville, Massachusetts, and now a Brooklyn resident, Udden also performs his torchsongs project (a band described as “melodic jazz-rock” and a self-titled 2006 recording) frequently around New York, the Northeast, and in the past year the West Coast, China, and Scandinavia.

Long-time member of the Grammy nominated Either/Orchestra (Matt Wilson, John Mediski and Miguel Zenon among other alumni), Udden recorded three albums with the band and toured Europe, Africa, and around the US a number of times. Twenty records to his credit as a sideman (Accurate, CIMP, Creative Nation Music, Fresh Sound New Talent, Innova) with projects in the jazz, avant-garde, rock, pop, and world music genres, has helped give his music a “wealth of texture and invention” (Terrell Kent Holmes, All About Jazz New York).

Winner of the 2003 Fish-Middleton Jazz Competition in Washington, D.C. and a 2005 ASCAP Young Composer Award finalist, he recently performed at Carnegie Hall’s Merkin Hall with Joe Lovano, Dave Leibman and Irene Aebi in tribute to Steve Lacy, and as a guest soloist with Gunther Schuller and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston at Harvard’s Sanders Theater.

Udden also performs with Dominique Eade, the Jazz Composer’s Alliance, Monika Heidamann, i am the color of dead leaves, Andy Green, Sofia Koutsovitis, Michael Winnograd’s Infection, Bruno Raberg and Mulatu Estatke. Over the years, he has shared the stage or studio with Mahmoud Ahmed, Steve Lacy, The Presidents of the United States of America, Juliana Hatfield, Sam Rivers, Maria Schnieder, the Miracle Orchestra, Darcy James Argue, Charlie Kolhase, Tony Malaby, Bill McHenry, John McNeil, John Hollenbeck, to name a few and too many wonderful musicians in New York, Boston, California, Sweden, Italy, Maine, Washington, China, Portugal and Africa to name.

Udden started playing the saxophone at age 10, and began performing regularly on the Boston club scene at 15 with Big Lick, an eight-piece ska/punk band with two albums and a few US tours to its credit. In high school he was also a member of the All-American Grammy Band. In 1996 he moved to Boston to study with Allan Chase, Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, Paul Bley, Charlie Banacos, Steve Lacy, Danilo Perez, Fred Hersch, and Bob Brookmeyer at the New England Conservatory.